After their success with ‘Design Like You Give a Damn’ six years ago, Architecture for Humanity has just released Design Like You Give A Damn [2]: Building Change From the Ground Up. This second volume documents over 100 projects from around the world, highlighting designs that deal with disaster reconstruction, shelter, education, and the basic needs of communities. What makes DLYGAD[2] different from the first release is that it not only lays out a series of amazing projects in print, but details how each project came about to provide an informative handbook that offers readers inspiration and knowledge on how to accomplish their own projects. To celebrate the new release, we’re giving away a copy of DLYGAD[2] to one lucky reader – hit the jump to learn how you can win a book of your own!

2. LEAVE A COMMENT BELOW. Give us an answer in the comments on the following topic: Tell us about an architecture or design project in your local area that has brought about positive change for people in your community or the environment. Be sure to list the project’s name, city, state. AND if you know the architects or designers please include that too. We’ll pick a winner on Wednesday July 18th.

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23 Comments

Copenhagen has been chosen to the Green City in EU in 2014. This book could give us a lot of inspiration to further green the city, so I am grateful already for receiving the book:-)

silkchenJuly 21, 2012 at 5:34 pm

When will you announce who won the book? I’d so like to read it, I check daily!

mvparchJuly 17, 2012 at 9:07 am

I would love to read this book

jfksdcaJuly 16, 2012 at 1:14 am

New to this site. Looks exciting!

Holzman6July 15, 2012 at 11:42 pm

I believe that a new paradigm in design is a necessary shift in the way we relate to the issues of the world. Design is a fundamental aspect of the human condition however, our current design paradigm has left us the destruction of the faults imbedded in the way we relate the world around. An integrated, wholistic approach to design, whether that be grand instances such as cities or smaller projects such as homes, our ability as a species to shift our design palate in a direction that maintains a sustaiable template offers great hope for the future. Thank you designers, architects, city planners, and all other people trying to shape the new design paradigm.

mo nukerJuly 15, 2012 at 8:09 pm

Maya Creek – Education in Sustainability is a demonstration and education site near Fulton, MO. Maya Creek has three residents that live onsite. There are other volunteers and visitors that help with the various projects. They follow the Permaculture design principals which include organic gardening, building with local natural building materials, and creating a communal culture that thrives with few external inputs and dependencies.

The 310 acre site is evolving into a living community, working harmoniously with nature. Visitors may come for a short stay, or just a brief tour. Learning as they go, is somewhat of a motto at Maya Creek. The residents do not consider themselves experts in this context and are continually learning as they move forward toward creating their community and keeping close to nature. Maya Creek can be best learned about by searching their web address via one of the popular search engines or typing maya creek in the search box on Facebook.

I’ve enjoyed learning about Maya Creek and the work they have done. Straw bail natural floor housing, utilizing solar energy to generate electricity and heat water, collecting rainwater into a cistern for drinking water, utilizing excrement and sawdust to create compost fertilizer, seeing an opportunity to use reflective sunlight to boost the output of their solar panels. These folks are working hard to go beyond just saving energy and reducing waste, their are creating a lifestyle that makes the most drastic reduction in their footprint.

sunnymayJuly 12, 2012 at 3:50 pm

One of the gems of Shaker Heights, OH, is the Nature Center at Shaker Lakes. All my kids have taken classes there and enjoy the boardwalk and all season trails through the woods. It’s also an important bird area according to the Audubon Society. The Green Building Renovation in 2002-2003 recycled some of the old trees into furniture. The Stewardship Center has a shelter, a covered porch, rain barrel and native plantings. It’s an exhibit of natural construction and green building practices. I remember seeing bales of straw used in the making of the walls of the porch.

MargotChiutenJuly 12, 2012 at 6:13 am

The Buffalo (NY) waterfront has been transforming into an exciting mixed use district and recreational asset. The Commercial Slip and Inner Harbor are destinations on the water, and the Outer Harbor Parkway is nearly complete. Designers include Flynn Battaglia, Mathews Nielsen, and Trowbridge Wolf Michaels Landscape Architects.

DavidZJuly 12, 2012 at 4:17 am

One has to be careful to not get carried away by the exclusive green campaign. For instance, a study done by Environmental Energy Technologies Division at Lawrence Berkley lab showed that the cost of energy is 20 $ per sq. meter per year, the cost of an employee is 2000 $ per sq. meter per year. Which shows that just a slight improvement in the working environment is much more profitable than improvement of ecology standards. When our architecture will come from low-energy ouse to zero-energy with the use of bioclimatic concepts of design, that’s when we can stop thinking of profit and start thinking green.

oliviaaitken@hotmail.comJuly 11, 2012 at 6:22 pm

After the Christchurch earthquake, Gap Filler was set up by Coralie Winn and others http://www.gapfiller.org.nz to find empty, unused sites around Christchurch and particularly the CBD and activate them to bring hope, entertainment and the community back together. Some projects have included a bowling alley, a cycle powered cinema and small buildings for businesses that have had to relocate. This organisation has the support of the community with public volunteers, and even schools and community groups helping out. They are funded by donations only. They are a great asset to Christchurch and its future!

naomilmJuly 11, 2012 at 6:11 pm

It is currently being built here in Seattle:
An office building that lasts 250 years with no monthly electricity or water bills. Soon it will be a reality, say the builders of what they hope will be the biggest office tower in the nation that produces as much water and electricity as it consumes.
Currently rising from a pit in downtown Seattle, the $30 million, six-story “living building” is being spearheaded by Denis Hayes and Jason McLennan, who believe they can save the world one building at a time by reducing the massive energy appetites of modern cities.

It is the first fully integrated Public and University Library in Europe, and situated in landscaped surroundings a stone’s throw from the University’s new city campus. The centre adds a stunning new chapter to the story of the city which gave us the world’s oldest newspaper, Edward Elgar and Royal Worcester.

And there is something for everyone…

The key facts
The project is a partnership initiative between University of Worcester and Worcestershire County Council which will bring a range of services under one roof:

Winning an international award – the Bentley Be Inspired Innovation in Generative Design – in October 2009 was a great achievement, and the project was also shortlisted for Best Designed Project and Best Local Government Project Team at the national Public-Private Finance awards in April 2010.

Construction techniques to minimize impacts on the environment:
-Existing buildings demolished and the resultant materials crushed and re-used for the piling mat~
-Piled foundations “bored” as opposed to being “driven” into the ground to reduce the impact on the archaeological features buried beneath the building.
-Recycled aggregate and GGBFS cement replacement used in the concrete frame to reduce embodied energy.
-Post tensioned concrete slabs used to reduce the amount of concrete and particularly the steel reinforcement required.
-The roof is built almost entirely of prefabricated timber panels, reducing on site wastage and site energy consumption.
-Over 75% of waste creating during the construction phase has been recycled.
-A proprietary system was adopted which filtered out the cement based sediments from water used on site. CO2 was used to neutralised the filtered water before its disposal.

olvchelleJuly 11, 2012 at 5:57 pm

this is great stuff!

beatschnitteJuly 11, 2012 at 5:54 pm

i want this book

bojonsonJuly 9, 2012 at 6:14 pm

I want to read this book, but can’t afford it! Enter me in the giveaway, PLEASE!!!!

quixoticbeatnikJuly 9, 2012 at 12:16 pm

One project that I can think of in my city of Houston, Texas is the new BBVA Compass Stadium for the Houston Dynamo soccer team. They had been playing in the University of Houston’s football stadium, so they didn’t really have a “home” until now. The stadium is good because it focuses the passion of Dynamo fans into a home, plus the stadium will also be used by the football team at Texas Southern University. It’s a multi-use stadium that was designed beautifully. I believe it’s the first stadium in the US to achieve LEED Platinum status, and the way that it is designed was to maximize the spectator experience while still feeling like an intimate arena. The outside is steel mesh, which allows air to circulate throughout the stadium – which is great, because summers in Houston are very hot! It is also located in the East End of Houston, which is not an economically vibrant place in Houston. The stadium and the soccer players do a lot to give back to the local community and to be involved. The stadium was designed by Populous, the same firm that designed the new Yankee Stadium in New York. It is a gorgeous stadium and a symbol of love and passion for one of our hometown teams!

klundgrenJuly 8, 2012 at 3:40 pm

I live in Boise, Idaho, and the Boise River is central to our community as it runs through the city, and provides just about the only water recreation in the area, with the exception of a small lake by the dam. Parts of it are in bad shape. Here is one project for reclamation: “McLaughlin Whitewater has worked with the City of Boise to design a whitewater park that promotes both land-based recreation and whitewater boating.” “An old concrete plant, slaughter house and dumping grounds left the area dirty, polluted and unsafe. This project will protect the existing banks from erosion, restore riparian areas, and improve fish and wildlife habitat while providing the community with a natural place to gather.”

elyBrigJuly 6, 2012 at 2:32 pm

I live in Turin, that was known as the “grey” capital of italian car industry. When this part of the city’s economy failed, Turin has a lot of giant industrial plant that leave a very “heavy” heritage: the city needed a strong rehab. So it was decided to turn these pollutant giants into the most sustainable part of the city. The main project was the upgrade of the Michelin an Vitali’s steel plant. They are considered like “industrial archeology” so the main project maintains part of iron structure and re-use some of the waste that came from the demolition. Now they became a huge park and an environmental museum.
sorry for my very bad english! but is so hard to describe this wonderful (and complex) project!
take a look at these link: http://www.italiaunita150.it/progetti/torino.aspx

The terrestrial mud volcanoes of the Riserva Naturale regionale delle Salse di Nirano are situated in the Northern Apennines (Italy) and were formed by the expulsion of mud, water, liquid hydrocarbons and gases, predominantly methane. The reserve has welcomed over 70,000 visitors over the last 12 months.

Project Open Sites
The objectives of this project were to make the area accessible to the disabled (visually impaired, people with mobility problems …), to create a barrier-free route with panels and photographic images in Braille, to reduce the human impact of area by channelling visitors along specifically designed paths to protect Puccinellia Borreri (a rare species of grass) and Cheilanthes marantae (a rare fern) and to make the entire area accessible even in wet conditions.

The design criteria was inspired by green concepts and environmental sustainability, using techniques and materials from “Architettura Bioecologica” (bio-ecological architecture) and “Ingegneria Naturalistica” (natural engineering). The choice of materials, in this case wood and steel wire, would have to be compatible with and appropriate to the landscape and environment. The contours of the walkway follow the contours of the ground and form an even slope with slots to allow the sunlight to reach the vegetation below and at a height sufficient to allow the natural flow of rainwater and clay silt flowing from the volcano cones. The new walkway is extremely attractive and sympathetic to the landscape.

The architects responsible for the realisation of this project were Maddalena and Bianca Grazie of Studio Arketipo in Modena, Italy

The former US military barracks in Mietraching, Bavaria, Germany is going towards “zero-energy-city” (project name). An interesting project, where old buildings get renovated and turned into eco-friendly homes as well as new buildings get built (wooden multy-storey buildings, they look great!)… I used to work at this base which I know means a lot to so many people (former inhabitants, co-workers, friends for life) worldwide and I am happy that these buildings get used for great purposes like this, for a new better future.
LINK: http://www.eneff-stadt.info/en/pilot-projects/project/details/a-former-military-base-on-its-way-to-a-zero-energy-city/

Star RicioJuly 5, 2012 at 2:20 pm

I fortunately became a part of a community development program in the Philippines known as “Gawad Kalinga” way back in college. The program aims to build a sustainable and self-reliant community for poor families. In an instance, i personally helped out in building houses at Pasig city area. The houses were designed to be colorful, uplifting and convenient for the residents to live in. I can say that it made a great impact on residents’ way of life as they started to have their own livelihood programs, organizations and became an environmentally healthy community as well due to well planned areas/spaces.

2012earthchangesJuly 5, 2012 at 1:54 pm

well ive taken classes at SFIA focused on rain water reuse which is really important because of the water it conserves and how it reaches people all over the world that can with a simple set up have access to water! also solar power classes that ive learned the in and outs of solar power and how people can have access to power in the most remote places! also been thinking of a project where we would go and instead of green front lawns that use a ton of water just to keep it green why not have a “lawn” full of herbs and veggies that take the same amount of water to produce. also once i turn 21 i really want to get down with EARTH SHIPS & become part of the earth army! and one day be a designer to help the earth and the people. architecture for the people and the planet!!! look out! really would love this book!!!!!!